Ok, ok

I was being mildly facetious (only mildly) with the title of the last post. It's true, there's a new terror alert for India (it must be true; it's in the NYT). What you might not otherwise know is that the story is based entirely on a "warden alert" for expats generated by the Embassy in Delhi, and that these alerts are published every time a Pakistani looks at an Indian funny. (Cost associated with publishing: low; CYA benefit for the Embassy: high.)

There's been at least a half-dozen such alerts at various times during my stay in India. This is the first one that's been widely republished, and the first time I've ever seen any such alert (which all posts issue for their own countries) make it as far as the Times. Smacks of alarmingly sloppy journalism, actually -- if it were original reporting rather than the lazy prominent placement of wire copy, the Times would surely know better than to base anything on this kind of Embassy notification. It's akin to writing about the imminent catastrophe about to be unleashed on humankind by subway cars because you saw an official MTA notice saying "Warning! Riding between cars can result in injury or death!"

If I were feeling benign, I'd say perhaps this warden message is being treated differently because it comes on the heels of the recent train bombings. But when have I ever felt benign? Papers with terrorism stories are selling briskly right now, and some media outlets (shame, shame NYT) are inflating routine bureaucratic warnings into "the world is about to end"-type sales leaders.

That said...it's unfortunately very likely that violence will break out during the western India festival season that runs from the end of the month 'til November. "Perfect storm" factors are brewing: the expected verdict in the 1993 bombing trial (12 years' deliberation is speedy for Mumbai), and the fact that everyone still has a pet conspiracy theory for the most recent blasts, among others. But India really doesn't need to worry much about Al-Queda tearing it apart; it can do that itself with surprising efficiency.